


Get Your Cup of Roasted Coffee

by SpringlockedSpectre



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: M/M, anyway, coffee shop AU, enjoy or else frasier will break into your house and dance ominously whle you try to sleep at night, human! au, i'm love my boyes but damn, spring is such a damn straight in the first few chapters lemme tell ya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24304081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpringlockedSpectre/pseuds/SpringlockedSpectre
Summary: "After being jilted, you move to the city to hide your embarrassment, lick your wounds and start afresh."-×X×-Spring, being bored out of his mind while awaiting his coffee, looked through the notice board that was posted near him. A bunch of events at the coffee shop was listed, as well as some sort of promos and stuff like "Accepting Applications" and whatnot. Those didn't really catch his eye as much as the next poster said."Looking for a Roommate!"This was it. This could be his big break. After scanning the note more thoroughly, he quickly (and discretely) grabbed the note and shoved it into his pocket, then returned to his seat. Then he finally got his coffee.
Relationships: Springtrap/Golden Freddy
Comments: 13
Kudos: 41





	1. +xX[1]Xx+

**Author's Note:**

> Heya! This is my entry to that Open Novella Contest that I didn't even get a place in lmao. But anyway, this is just a soft GoldTrap story, in which Spring is a dude whose fiancee didn't want him at the altar, embarrassing him in front of pretty much everyone in their little town, while Gold is a barista at a coffee shop. How's it gonna go? Better than Skeletons in the Closet, probably haha. Anyway, hope you enjoy this, because I had fun writing it.

_Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong!_

Ah. There he was, standing at the aisle. He was prim, proper, and everything else he needed to be for his - no, _their_ special day. It was their wedding day! William couldn't believe his eyes as his lucky bride to be was walking down the aisle, towards him, her even luckier groom. He couldn't thank the stars enough.

Marion headed down the aisle in her gorgeous gown, her head tilted slightly downwards, and a slightly nervous smile on her face. She must've been as nervous as Will was! Will tried not to fidget with his cuffs, and just continued to watch Marion as she gracefully walked up right next to him. She averted her gaze once she got to him, just as Will suddenly remembered how the Bride wasn't supposed to look at the Groom before they are wed (or something along those lines!), so William just held her hand, which she timidly accepted.

"Dear friends and family." The pastor started. "We are gathered here today to witness and celebrate the union of Marion Strings and William Afton in marriage. Through their time together, they have come to realize that their personal dreams, hopes, and goals are more attainable and more meaningful through the combined effort and mutual support provided in love, commitment, and family; and so today, they will begin their life together, as husband and wife."

They went on with the reading, and onto the vows. "Do you, William Afton, take Marion Strings, to be your lawfully wedded wife, promising to love and cherish, through joy and sorrow, sickness and health, and whatever challenges you may face, for as long as you both shall live?"

Will smiled at Marion, whose gaze was still pointed away from him, instead looking at the floor with a meek look. "I do."

"And do you, Marion Strings, take William Afton, to be your partner in life and to share a path of life with; equal in love, embraced as a mirror for your true self, promising to honor and cherish her/him, through good times and bad, until death do you part?"

And as William lovingly looked at Marion, his heart swelling with love, joy, and other good feelings, as she spoke. "I... I don't."

"...what?" William felt his heart burst into a million pieces when she said those words. Was that why she was always looking away? Why she always looked so nervous? She just didn't want him. Of course she wouldn't want him. No one would ever want him. William felt tears well up in his eyes, and as his vision went blurry, so did his hearing. He could hear some sort of noise going on, he could hear some people laughing, he could hear Marion whispering something to him, but none of it made any sense to him.

So he stood up, and ran away. William ran and ran, until he couldn't anymore. He was able to get near to where his house was, but not close enough to be able to crawl inside. So he stayed on the sidewalk, sobbing his broken heart out until he couldn't anymore.

**-xXx-**

And so here William was, packing all of his things and pointedly ignoring items that he associated with Marion. He was just about done. Oh yeah. And he decided to legally change his name. Just for good measure. After making sure all of his things were in his suitcase, he went on to Delta Airlines to catch his flight to Utah. He really wished he could've picked a better airport where the staff wasn't just a bunch of assholes, but it was the last flight that would go today, to literally anywhere that wasn't here, so whatever.

He waited to be able to get past the checkpoint, his new identification just waiting in his pocket. He knew he didn't _really_ have to do this. He could've just stayed in his small little town. But as much as William wanted to stay, he couldn't stay in the same town as Marion. Or any of her relatives. Or any of _his_ relatives, for that matter. He'd be the laughing stock of all the town for crying and running away. You know how teenagers are. So mean. So vicious. He's lucky that he didn't encounter anyone on the way to the airport. Probably because it was four in the morning.

William rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he entered the checkpoint. The guard eyed him curiously, yet only said one word (or two, depending on how you see it). "I.D.?"

William pulled out his I.D. and handed it to the guard. He stood by nervously as if the guard could see right through him. The guard's eyebrows now raised in a rather unimpressed way as the guard looked at William. "Spring Trapp?"

"Yeah. That's me." William said, as he sort of cringed. He was still trying to get used to that name, but he'd manage. The guard raised a single eyebrow (or did he lower one?) as he handed _"Spring's"_ I.D. back.

"Strange name."

"Blame my parents."

"It's a girl's name." Spring thought so too. In hindsight, he probably should've picked some other name like Frederick. Or Michael. But ah well.

"I know. My parents always wanted a little girl." Spring hated this talk already. He probably should've just went by Trapp like he originally thought. Even though it's more of a surname than anything.

"Well, you're free to go, Mr. Trapp." 

Spring sighed in relief as he went through the checkpoint and finally went onto the seats to wait for his flight. And while he waited to board his flight, he sighed in relief. All of this fear and shit would be over soon. He'd just move into the city, lick his wounds, and start afresh. How hard would that be? He relaxed himself and just repeated _"it's all gonna work out"_ in his head, like some sort of mantra, and he was finally ready to face his new future.

**-xXx-**

So, Spring didn't really like being called Spring. And yet, all of his paperwork and I.D.s said that he was named Spring, and as much as he regretted picking some sort of cooler name like, Caleb or Hunter, he just decided to stick with it. Besides, he didn't want to go through the name changing process again. It was just so much work. Plus, he picked a decent enough last name, so people could just call him by that.

Right now, Spring was in Hurricane, Utah, in which he was searching for an affordable place to live. Since he spent most of the money he had left on getting the name change and a plane ticket, he was running out of options relatively quickly. He tried going into the "low-rent" places, but all of them were either full or somehow still out of his price range. Frankly, he was getting tired of searching, so he decided to head to a coffee shop, maybe all he needed was some good luck caffeine and then he'd be able to find a room that could fit him.

And so, after ordering a coffee from the barista, he sat down near one of the many, many potted plants that were in the building. He wasn't really sure on the whys of it all, but hey, he figured that it was for atmosphere and left it at that. Spring just people watching. Not because he found them interesting, but because he wanted to distract himself from the thought of being homeless.

There was a guy with brown hair and an air of pompous royalty to him. There was a blonde woman with bright pink booty shorts and was wearing those little aerobics bands or whatever they're called. And there was a blond guy, who looked like he worked at the place, leaving just after his shift ended, probably. They made eye contact, with the blond guy smiling and waving at Spring, for some reason. He smiled and waved back, mostly out of politeness. And after that, he just went back to waiting impatiently for his nice, hot coffee. Like seriously, how long should it take to get a coffee in this place?!

Spring glanced at the notice board and he would've laughed if he wasn't currently on the verge of being a hobo because he left his old life behind. He noted that the designs of the posters on the board were... well, it wasn't necessarily _bad_ , but it wasn't really _good_ either. Spring could've probably done better when he was a freshman in high school. He quickly dismissed it, calling for a server or a barista or something to give him his coffee. The barista just laughed and danced with his coworkers, completely unaware of how anxious he was. _At least you guys get to be all carefree and stuff._ Spring thought bitterly.

Spring tore his gaze away from the baristas and kept looking for rooms on his phone. He'd really have to find some way to charge it that wasn't plugging it into the 7/11 charging stations. Especially since the last time he did that, his phone almost got stolen by some random kid! Spring shuddered at the memory, simply choosing to look at the baristas, still laughing, still dancing. He had to admit, the way they danced was pretty enticing, but how long they made him wait, was not.

Spring, being bored out of his mind while awaiting his coffee, looked through the notice board that was posted near him once again. A bunch of events at the coffee shop was listed, as well as some sort of promos and stuff like "Accepting Applications" and whatnot. Those didn't really catch his eye as much as the next poster said.

_"Looking for a Roommate!"_

This was it. This could be his big break. After scanning the note more thoroughly, he quickly (and discretely) grabbed the note and shoved it into his pocket, then returned to his seat. _Then_ he finally got his coffee.

**-xXx-**

Spring immediately went to the place mentioned in the advertisement, which in hindsight, he probably shouldn't have done yet, since he probably should've called first. But ah well, he had nothing to lose.

 _"Except for_ _literally_ _everything you once had!"_ A voice in Spring's head said. He pointedly ignored that thought.

He sighed, thinking that he should probably call the person who put up the advertisement, though he thought that since his phone died a few hours ago, he'd have to find a pay phone somewhere. So that's a no-go. Oh well. No time like the present. He hit the buzzer and waited for his (hopefully) soon to be roommate.

At first, he heard nothing. And then suddenly he heard a bunch of items being knocked around followed by a quick "Shit, uh, coming!" Spring would've found that funny if the rest of his life literally did not depend on getting this room. The door then opened to reveal a shorter guy with blond hair - _oh hey, it's the barista guy that smiled and waved at him!_

"Oh hey, you're the guy I waved at!" The guy said to him. Spring responded with a rather timid "yeah" while sort of rubbing his arm.

"So uh, my name's Aureus, but my friends call me Gold or Goldie, I don't really mind whatever." Goldie chuckled. "Uh, anyway, was there something you needed?"

Welp, here goes nothing. "Yeah! I, uh. I'm Spring Trapp, and I was actually looking for a room to stay in, and I saw _your_ ad from the coffee shop. And uh..." Gold looked like he was about to say something, but Spring interrupted him with a rather quick drabble about how he probably should've called first, but his phone died hours ago and he didn't really have time to find a payphone, and he was already there when he realized that he needed to call, all that jazz.

Gold just listened to him ramble about why he didn't call first, while leaning on the door frame. And then Spring finished his rant and felt rather stupid about the whole thing, so he quickly apologized and turned to leave.

"Wait - w-why are you leaving?" Gold asked with a tinge of disappointment in his voice.

"Because I messed things up and I'm really ashamed of myself so bye!" Spring really wasn't having a good time right now. He was genuinely ashamed of what he did and how he did it, and _oh god he's gonna have another panic attack but this time in front of a cute boy- oh god oh god oh god._

Gold seemed to notice this and in a panicked state, he tried to assure Spring that it's okay, he was okay. Spring was still panicking, and was now on the floor, where he was completely breaking down. Gold scooped Spring up in his arms, and let Spring lean on his frame, all while muttering reassurances to Spring. "It's fine! You're fine. You can stay here. I'll even let you stay without paying the rent for the first month, just calm down. What you're feeling may be scary, but you'll get through this. I promise. Now breathe with me, come on now."

Gold then proceeded to breathe in slowly, then out slowly. In. Out. In. Out. After a while, Spring was able to calm himself down to the point that he was only slightly sobbing and his breathing was level with Gold's.

"Th-Thanks... for h-helping me with... yeah." Spring spoke with a broken voice. Gold just smiled at him with a knowing gaze.

"It's no problem, dude. It was the least I could do for you checking out my ad." 

"So do you mean it? L-Letting me stay here?"

"Yeah. Of course I mean it."

Spring sighed happily, leaning more into Gold's frame. He didn't quite care about the strange position he put himself in. He was too tired (emotionally and physically), and Gold's gentle, reassuring strokes on his back were nicely welcome. Ah well. He'd sort this out later. For now, he'd just revel in the fact that he's no longer homeless, and that he's laying in the arms of a cute barista. And for a moment, Spring felt his heart swell up with the same emotions he felt for Marion when all was good, and he liked that fact


	2. +xX[2]Xx+

And so, Spring settled down in Gold's place. It wasn't really too hard, Gold already had a spare room, and all it needed was a few of Spring's own personal touches _(stuff like photos of him and his family, a poster that basically said "Keep Going Forward!", as well as a poster of a band that he always liked, even though Marion hated it, she said it was too loud and unsophisticated)_ , and then it'd be done! It almost felt like home. Actually, now that he thought about it, it felt more like a home than when he was with Marion. It felt like he actually belonged here, instead of feeling like a little fixture in Marion's house. 

"Caged Heart. Classic."

Spring suddenly looked back at Gold, who was leaning against the doorway. Spring sort of did that thing where he muttered a bunch of words, trying to make a fathomable phrase. Gold didn't seem to mind, though, and just looked at the Caged Heart poster.

"I've always liked their songs." Gold continued while Spring tried to gather his thoughts. "I've actually bought a few of their CDs, back when I thought there was no way I'd be broke."

Gold snorted, and Spring found that hella cute and so he looked away. Gold then proceeded to explain how young and dumb he was, but hey, he's getting his life together piece by piece, and soon enough he'll be able to actually get a partner. Spring found it kind of strange that Gold used the word "partner" instead of a girlfriend, and he guessed that it showed on his face, since Gold began explaining himself.

"So, uh..." Gold began awkwardly, rubbing his arm. It sort of feels like he's done this before, and the outcome wasn't all too good. "I say 'partner' because I don't really mind whomever I date? Does that make sense?"

Spring's heart leaped at that, he wondered why though. He surely wasn't... No, he couldn't have been. Right? Either way, Spring nodded, chiming in with an "I totally get it, man," even though he really didn't get it that much.

Gold stood up to his full height _(which wasn't that tall, though it could just be because Spring's taller that he made that assumption),_ and began a small question. Almost muttering.

"...that wouldn't change your view on this whole thing, right? You won't suddenly leave in the middle of the night, leaving me wondering where you went?"

Spring felt his heart break at Gold's words. He could feel a sense of hurt and heartache in Gold's voice, as though Gold had been through this before. Spring decided to ensure that Gold wouldn't have to face this sort of pain again.

"No, it doesn't change anything." Spring smiled at Gold, slightly removing his worries. "And I'm not leaving. That's a promise."

And just for a second, they smiled at each other. And the world was quiet. It was a nice kind of quiet. A calming kind of quiet.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

**-xXx-**

"So. Tell me a little more about yourself."

"I still think this is stupid."

Spring was currently in his tuxedo _(the very same that he wore to his old wedding, which really saddens him but he doesn't let Gold know about that),_ in front of him was Gold, who wore a dark blue polo shirt with a golden vest in front (Gold thought it was pretty funny). Right now, they were in Gold's dining area, which connected to the kitchen and the living room, sitting in front of a relatively small table, eating some leftover steak that Gold had about a few days ago and some sort of salad that Spring made as kind of a thanks for letting him stay in the house. Gold said that they were "getting to know each other" and that the best way to do that was "with a candlelit dinner". Gold had a little candle in between them, and had dimmed all the lights just a little bit before telling Spring to wear his finest suit. Spring didn't really object, since he was kinda indebted to Gold for letting him stay at his house without having to pay rent for the first month, but he really didn't think all of this was necessary. I mean, come to think of it, it sort of looked like a date. Now, Spring was okay with Gold's sexuality, but he didn't really need to flaunt it in his face or something. 

"Don't you wanna get to know me?" Gold smirked as he sipped his (cheapass) wine from a wine glass which he never even used before this very moment.

"I do, but mayhaps when it doesn't look like we're going on a date to a bootleg fancy restaurant." Spring said after he finished chewing his steak (to be polite). Gold sighed dramatically and laid his elbows on the table. "You wound me, my darling Spring."

Spring couldn't help but wish that the light from the small candle in between them would be enough to hide his blush. It probably didn't, judging by Gold's constant eyebrow waggling, but he just decided to let it pass. 

"But seriously." Gold had this sort of... _glint,_ in his eye. Something that looks like longing, but for what? Spring didn't know. "Tell me about yourself."

And just like that, the glint was gone. 

"Well uh. I traveled here from Ohio, to get away from my supposed-to-be wife, after she _jilted me_ and I changed my name in an effort to lose their trail, but I'm always terrified that they'd find me here and make fun of me again, so."

"...shit man, I'm so sorry about that." Gold cringed. Maybe telling his roommate about why he went here was a bad idea, but at this point, he figured that he'd just tell someone and them move on. He quickly downed his cheapass wine that he bought from the dollar store _(hey, it was the thought that counted!),_ and poured out another cup of wine, eyeing the liquid as it swished around in his little cup.

"Why are you saying sorry? It's not like you were the one who told... the love of my life... to say no at our wedding..." Spring sighed as he downed his wine. It tasted sucky, but ah well. It's like he always said, "A little bit of liquor means that you forget your ex quicker", and that seems to be all he could think of at the moment, so that's what he was going for.

"I know, but I still feel bad about the whole situation." Gold was looking at him sympathetically. As if what Spring had gone through was worse than what he'd been through. Well, it could've been, Spring didn't actually know what happened. But Spring kept his mouth shut.

"Well, it could've been worse. They could've made me stay there. Then I wouldn't have met you." Spring found himself smiling quite a bit at that. Yeah. Out of all the shit that happened after the clusterfuck that was his wedding, meeting Gold had to have been the best part that came out of it. He saw Gold blushing, and he thought to himself that he wanted to be the cause of him blushing, all the time. He reached out and touched Gold's hand, as some sort of sign of reassurance, or something of the sorts. They said nothing as they shared some sort of peace in between them.

"That's really nice of you, Spring."

"It's the truth."

And so they decided to eat, and talk a bit more, about other, non-saddening things, like what they liked about Caged Heart, how they felt about going to that new Pet Park, how they much they loved dogs, stuff like that. He made himself another glass of wine, already feeling kinda drunk, when Gold stopped him.

"Hey now. Aren't you already drunk?"

"Not drunk enough." Spring said as he put his hand on Gold's. Gold's face reddened slightly, his face showing a look of surprise, before quickly shifting into his cocky smirk and taking his hand back. And so, Spring poured a lot of wine into his glass, and drank it all within seconds.

"That was quite a lot, my dude." Gold looked kinda impressed. Spring grinned lopsidedly, and just put his glass down, before thinking about something. He could've just decided to stay sober for the whole thing, but he decided 'eh, fuck it', and grabbed the whole damn bottle and drinking straight from it. Gold looked hella surprised at that and began laughing his ass off.

"Still not drunk enough?"

"W-Wait... almost." 

Gold was still laughing, his smile reaching his ears. Spring liked the sound of Gold laughing. It felt nice. After the wine settled in, Spring was absolutely certain that he was hella drunk. Like, "I'm going to regret this tomorrow morning" drunk. And so he just laughed along with Gold, immediately dispelling the thought from his mind.

Right now, Spring was looking at Gold as if he were the sexiest person he'd ever seen. And he was. He was hotter than Marion. He had a bit of muscle, probably from heavy lifting that he had to do from his barista gig. Was there even heavy lifting involved in being a barista? He wasn't quite sure. Anyway, he also had super soft hair, and the brightest green eyes. Spring thought that Gold's eyes were so pretty, he'd probably try to dye his hair that shade of green, just so that he always remembers Gold's eyes. He was just so... picturesque. Spring really wished that he had his camera here with him, just so that this moment could last forever. The dim candlelight just made Gold seem more ethereal, like he was some sort of extraplanar being that was far beyond his understanding. If only Spring could just lay his eyes on Gold for eternity.

"...are you even still capable of listening to me?"

Spring snapped out of his trance and decided to look at Gold as a whole person, instead of his individual features. Was Gold talking? Spring could've sworn that Gold was just smirking at him, but that could've been just his mind playing tricks on him. It must've been.

"...yeaaaahhhh." Spring half-slurred, half-mumbled. Gold was now shaking his head and stood up from his seat, walking towards Spring.

"Come on, bud." Gold said as he picked Spring up bridal style. "Let's get you to bed."

Spring wrapped his arms around Gold's neck, slightly nuzzling against Gold's frame. Gold blushing even harder at this proved to be a sign for Spring. _The_ sign he'd been both excited and dreading to see. Spring thought about his options, and the one option that kept popping in his head was the most dangerous one, especially if it wasn't time yet. Spring knew that it wasn't time yet. But he didn't even know when it'd ever be time, so fuck it. He had to say those three words.

"I want you."

Gold stopped in his tracks, while Spring caressed Gold's face, pushing it to face him. Gold chuckled nervously, tried to get something out, but all Spring could hear were his thoughts, all screaming at him to kiss Gold. 

And so he did.

At first, Gold seemed reluctant to kiss him, but eventually, he kissed back, passionately. Soon enough, they both went to Gold's bed, and were making out with an intense passion. Spring felt the fire in his heart, just waiting to be let out. Even in Spring's drunken haze, he could tell that Gold wanted it too. 

And so he gave it to him.

He quickly unbuttoned Gold's vest, and then his shirt, taking both off. He thought that this was probably too much for someone who could handle their liquor, but not for Spring. Spring was too drunk in order to comprehend what was too much, or too little, and all he knew was that he desperately wanted Gold tonight, and he wanted him as quickly as possible.

"W-Wait..." Gold moaned under his breath as Spring was already taking his pants off. "D-Don't you think we're-"

Spring wasn't in the mood to hear Gold talk, since he was more in the mood to get to know Gold's body affectionally. Spring put a finger up to Gold's lips, before kissing him passionately, thrusting his body onto Gold's. Gold shut up immediately after that, and began stripping Spring of his clothes. Spring got down to Gold's ear and whispered three words.

"I want you."


	3. +xX[3]Xx+

_'_ _Ugh_ _, my head_ _fucking_ _hurts so much.'_

Spring couldn't really recall what happened last night. He figured... he might've drunk a lot? A lot of beer maybe? He didn't know. He woke up in an unfamiliar room, yet he could sense a bit of familiarity, for some reason. As if he'd been there before. Spring tried to get up but he first noticed two things.

The first thing he noticed, was someone's head, resting in the crook of his neck, as well as a pair of arms wrapped around his chest. The second thing he noticed, was that the pair of arms was wrapped around his chest, which meant that he wasn't wearing a shirt. His eyes darted around the room frantically, his heart sinking in his chest as he _definitely_ saw his shirt somewhere on the floor. 

_Oh god, where were his pants?!_

Spring's breaths grew frantic as he tried to escape the grip of whoever was holding him down, waking whoever that person was in the process. 

"...What the fuck...?" Gold muttered tiredly as he let go of Spring. Spring immediately jumped up from the bed and started looking around for his pants in the room. Gold rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, stifling a yawn as he said, "What are you even looking for?"

"My pants! Where did you put them?!" Spring all but yelled at Gold, who just looked at him with a glance that said _'really?'_ and sighed.

"You're still wearing them." Gold said nonchalantly as he stood up from the bed, lacking his own pants, but _(thankfully)_ still wearing his underpants. 

Spring glanced down at his legs, and sure enough, he was still, in fact, wearing his pants. He sighed in frustration, both at himself and at Gold, but he didn't really let Gold know about that. As Gold put his pants on, Spring quickly put his dress shirt on and didn't even bother with the tux before sprinting out the door and locking himself in his room. _God, what was he thinking?! He'd just broken up with his wife and now he was fucking some dude that he just met?!_

Spring collapsed against the locked door, his head buried in his hands. He tried not to cry, he really did, but he couldn't stop the tears that flowed down his cheeks. He listened for Gold, who based on the sounds from beyond his door sounded like he was making breakfast.

"We didn't fuck." Gold said while (presumably) microwaving some sort of thing.

"W-What?" 

"We did not do the frick-frack. The lust-and-thrust. The aggressive cuddling. The... that's all I can think of." Gold said as he was doing... something involving a bunch of sizzling.

Spring just stared at the door (and presumably, at Gold, wherever he was) in disbelief. "You... you're not lying?"

Gold scoffed at that. "No. I'm honestly hurt that you'd think that I would lie about that." Gold chuckled, but there was a tinge of hurt in his voice. 

Spring just stared away from the door. Okay, so he didn't really remember what the fuck they were doing last night, that's clear enough. But, due to the fact that his ass wasn't sore, and the fact that Gold didn't look like he was in pain when he stood up (plus Gold's words), he believed that they did not fuck. But then what was he doing in Gold's bed, _in Gold's arms?_

He slowly, and shakily, stood up, and slowly opened the door, revealing Gold, who was making eggs while listening to Caged Heart's song "Trapped".

 _'Well, I sure do feel trapped.'_ Spring thought to himself, watching Gold _(still shirtless)_ turn his attention to the beeping microwave. Spring didn't really know what to say, so he waited for Gold to finish doing whatever he was doing, sitting on the couch while watching Gold do all of the cooking stuff. He'd always wanted to learn how to cook, but he never really got into it, so he just watched Marion do it. Plus, it was always way better whenever she did.

Spring was snapped from his reverie when Gold abruptly said, "I didn't know what kind of eggs you liked, so I just settled for a sunnyside-up. If you won't eat that, then I'll just pack it for work."

"Sunnyside-up's fine." Spring muttered, finding his voice for the very first time within the last few minutes. He sighed as Gold put two plates down, one right in front of him, and just holding the other. Spring stared at his plate. Sunnyside-up egg, and a few porkchops. He didn't really feel like eating, so he just shot Gold a sideways glance, seemingly unaware of Spring's stare. Gold sighed and put down his plate, turning to Spring with a rather displeased look.

"We didn't fuck." Gold reiterated, with a look that Spring couldn't decipher. Could be just because he was still hungover. "Because you were drunk, and therefore, unable to consent."

Gold pinched the bridge of his nose and laid back on the couch. "Honestly, the fact that you think I'm so desperate to get it on that I'd fuck someone who's clearly drunk..."

Spring now felt bad about his assumption, but it was well deserved. Gold was gay or whatever, and Spring had heard of all the news about gay people raping straight kids. Spring knew about the dangers of all this. So why did he feel like he just fucked up?

"Listen, I-"

"Save it." Gold interrupted while getting up. "I'm gonna take a shower, then I'm heading off to work. If you're leaving, there's a set of spare keys near the door. Don't forget to lock up."

Well, that didn't go as well as he thought it would. Spring let out a breath, burying his face in his hands, while he listened to Gold go on about his day as if Spring wasn't even there. And when he was done, he grabbed his keys, and went out without even saying any sort of goodbye. 

Spring didn't really know how Gold felt, but from the past few days, Gold always said goodbye whenever he left for work. Spring felt like he made a very bad mistake in doing what he did. He just sighed and tried to make himself useful for once in his life. Maybe Gold just needed a bit to calm down? Yeah. Everything would work out eventually.

Spring sighed and let his head fall back on the couch. He needed to calm down himself, so he figured he'd take his camera and take a few pictures to ease his mind. That always worked in the past, so he figured that it would still work. Spring uncovered his camera from underneath all of the clothes and other stuff in his bag of luggage. He smiled to himself, taking in all of the memories that he'd captured. Little bits of his old life, scattered through small photos that held lots of meaning to him.

One photo stood out to him in particular.

It was of Marion, back before they had ever brought up getting married. She wore a black and white striped top, which seamlessly ended in a black dress, standing in front of a setting sun. The look she gave was one of mild amusement, and for some reason, Spring thought that there was a bit of... condescension on her face. As though she disapproved of Spring's interest in photography.

Tired of reminiscing on the good _(and the bad)_ memories, Spring decided that it'd be a good time to get up and take photos. Besides, he had nothing better to do, and the thoughts in his head about Marion's chastising was getting too powerful for him right now. On his way out, he looked back on the house, noting that the light seemed a bit duller, the warm feeling he got when he first moved in replaced by a cold nothingness, and shut the door.

**-xXx-**

After returning from his unplanned photoshoot, Spring didn't really do anything up until the point when Gold went back, at which he looked up from the TV at Gold, as if expecting an apology, to which Gold didn't respond at all and just headed straight to his room.

 _Well, that was strange._ Spring thought that Gold just needed some time to cool off and then they'd be alright. Spring furrowed his brows, looking at the TV but not paying attention to it. Did he do something wrong? Well, he supposed accusing Gold of fucking him without consent was wrong, but everyone does that with a gay guy, right?

Spring sighed and decided to check his phone for some sort of sign that he was right, but only found a text message from Gold, hours before he came home. Judging by the '...' he could tell that the message was way longer than he'd want to read, but hey. Maybe there was an apology there somewhere.

_New Message from: Goldie Fazbach_   
_12:48 PM_

_yknow_ _, not all lgbt people are rapists_

Well, up to a good start already.

 _some of us just want to love and be loved_ _without_ _any expectation to change ourselves for the comfort of straight people_

 _but_ _i_ _guess you wouldnt know that since youre such a straight man_

 _classic straight guys always joke about gay dudes and about_ _how_ _if a gay guy walks_ _up_ _to him hell punch the shit out of him_

 _its why_ _we dont bother expressing ourselves anymore_

_because were afraid of being beat up or being killed_

_i_ _personally dont want to be killed which_ _is_ _why i never mentioned my sexuality to you or anyone else_

 _but then you pull that shit on me and_ _now_ _im more_ _confused_ _than i ever was_

 _im giving_ _you_ _until_ _i_ _get back to think about what you did and then ill decide on whether or not i_ _should_ _kick you out_

 _think wisely spring_ _trapp_

...shit. Okay, now was the time to think up a quick, sincere apology. Spring couldn't think straight, and his fear was heightened when Gold came out of his room, now dressed casually, arms crossed.

"I-, uh-, look-" Spring sputtered out before sighing. "Okay. So I've never met an actual gay guy before-"

Spring could've sworn that he heard Gold mutter under his breath, something about being pansexual? What the hell even was that? Anyway.

"All I've heard of were stories about. You know."

Gold raised an eyebrow. "No. No, I do not know."

Spring cringed inwardly as he whispered out. "...predators."

Gold didn't react, perhaps because he didn't hear it, perhaps because he was already used to hearing that word being used to describe him. Spring looked down at the floor, not really wanting to speak more of the subject.

"Anyway, I just... want to let you know that I didn't mean to hurt you like that. I'd..." Was he really going to say this? It was a promise he didn't know he could keep. But... he was willing to try. "...I'd be willing to learn to get rid of these... prejudices."

Gold looked at Spring, rather unimpressed, but also like he was considering something. Gold sighed and went over to Spring, sitting down right next to him. "Alright."

"Alright?" Spring was more than just slightly scared that his apology (could it even be called that?) was not accepted, and that he'd be out on the streets again, but he did not voice this. He just let Gold collect his thoughts.

"You have one chance. _One chance_ to prove to me that you can change the way you think. And then we'll decide on whether or not you'll continue your stay here."

Spring thought that Gold's voice got a little bit softer, but he was sure that it was just him trying to make himself feel better. But still, he was so glad that he'd gotten his second chance.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Spring reached over and hugged Gold, who was clearly uncomfortable with the whole touching thing, and once Spring notices that he immediately let go. "Ah, sorry. For that."

Gold muttered to mostly himself, but loudly enough that Spring could hear, "It's alright. Just. Be sure to ask next time."

Spring nodded and looked ahead at the TV. He wasn't really watching it anymore, having been lost within his conversation with Gold. He'd have to try harder to change his mentality if he really wanted to live here. He looked at Gold, absentmindedly watching the TV. Spring wasn't quite sure of what the blond was thinking, but he assumed that he was deliberating his decision to let Spring stay.

_'I mean, who wouldn't?'_

Spring sighed. Well, he was going to have to do this one way or another. Why not do it right?

**-xXx-**

Spring decided to search online how not to be homophobic. It was a start. As he scrolled through articles relentlessly, he found quite a bit of information, but he couldn't process it all. He was getting restless, since he'd been up at it all night.

"So, you should probably head to bed right now."

Spring's head quickly turned to Gold, who was once again, leaning against the doorway, however this time, he looked more concerned.

"Ah. Heya. I'm just..." Spring stifled a yawn. "I'm just looking for ways to improve my behavior."

Gold nodded, but looked at his watch (which he wasn't wearing, he was just holding it in his hand), and looked at Spring with a look of soft concern. "Yeah, but it's kinda three in the morning so."

Spring deliberated on leaving the website, but found that his tiredness was at max capacity. _"Yeah,_ _I_ _can't stay up any longer."_ Spring thought to himself before bookmarking the tabs he had on, and went straight to his bed, looking over at Gold as he tucked his his sheets.

"Good night, Gold." Spring practically yawned and he closed his eyes.

Gold had a smidge of a smile on his face. "'Night, Spring."


	4. +xX[4]Xx+

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: Spring is not in fact, 8 feet tall, it's just that Gold is significantly shorter than him and Gold doesn't really know how tall Spring is

"Slow down, I have short legs!"

"I'm not slowing down just because you're short."

"Fuck you, I am NOT short, I just have short legs and you're fuckin'... I dunno, 8 feet tall."

Spring sighed as he (inevitably) slowed down for Gold. He'd decided to take Gold to somewhere he'd found while he was scouring the internet for how to be less homophobic, and as much as he wanted to tell Gold all about it, he kinda wanted it to be a surprise, so he kept his mouth shut and let out a non-committal hum.

"You still haven't told me where we're going to go." Gold muttered as he tried to keep up with Spring _(even though he was already slowing down considerably)._

"I said it was a surprise." Spring said, looking around for the path and checking his phone to see if he was even headed in the right direction. Gold just groaned. 

"I swear, if you get us lost I will literally fuckin' strangle you." Gold huffed and turned to look at the surroundings, seemingly aware of something, what that thing was, Spring wasn't sure, but they both moved forward regardless. After a few moments, a glimmer of recognition appeared in Gold's eyes.

"We're going to Springtime Theatre, aren't we?"

"Yep."

"Unbelievable." 

Spring didn't know much about Springtime Theatre, or about Hurricane in general, but he heard that Springtime was supposedly the "new" theater in town, and was also "really good". Hah. Also, it shared his name, so he got a kick out of it. He'd already bought two tickets and he was honestly both dreading and excitedly anticipating Gold's reaction to what movie he bought tickets to.

As soon as they arrived, Spring didn't even let Gold see what they were going to see, and just told him to trust him on this one. Gold looked at him incredulously, but there was a smidge of a smile on his face and to Spring, that was good enough.

They got some snacks, as well as their drinks _(they were really cheap, and also mediocre at best, which was probably why they were cheap in the first place)_ , and then sat down at their seats. Spring noticed how few of them there were in the audience. Either because the Springtime is not at all as good as the advertising may suggest, or because of the film that they were about to project onto the big screens. Maybe a little bit of both.

"So what is this movie anyway?" Gold turned to look at Spring. The tiniest of smiles on his face was now replaced by a look of genuine confusion, brows furrowed and pouting, all that jazz.

"Guess." Spring replied while almost laughing at how stupid his movie choice was.

"Is it zombies?"

"Nope."

"Romance?"

"Kinda."

"Is it about a boy who meets an alien girl and falls in love with her but then she moves away to some other galaxy or some shit and he vows to be a space guy but that tidbit isn't really factored in until the later, shitter sequels of the franchise?"

Spring had to actually bite his tongue to keep himself from laughing at that one. _"No, it's not Freddy In Space."_

"Which by the way, doesn't even happen in Space! Like, that's so not what the title says!"

"I know, I know." Spring laughed alongside Gold's muttering about how if it says "In Space" in the title, then it should be, _IN SPACE_. "Well, the movie's about to start so you better guess now or forever hold your peace."

Gold decided that moment was the best moment to not say anything and just stare at Spring. Spring took that as a "forever hold my peace" sort of thing and looked towards the movie screen. The crowd died down, as the screen showed a beautiful setting, a lot of grasslands with just a little bit of snow draping some of the greenery. The main character _(or, that's what Spring assumed to be the main character)_ popped out of her house and stared out into the yard in front of her, with what Spring could only assume was a smile.

"Ah." The girl said monotonously. "A lovely day in my lovely neighborhood."

Just then, a guy in a horrible easter bunny costume peeked out of the trees, and waved at the girl, who excitedly(?) exclaimed, "The Easter Bunny!"

"What the fuck is this shit?" Gold chuckled softly while popping in some popcorn.

"Just wait." Spring couldn't tell when the twist was coming, but he was pretty sure it'd happen in just a bit. Gold looked at him incredulously once more, but then turned his attention to the screen as the main girl started yelling "the Easter Bunny!" in a miserable excuse for excitement.

That's when the Easter Bunny got run over by a stupid looking CGI reindeer, which immediately flew away, dragging Santa's sleigh which wasn't there in the previous scene but there it was, just as the title card appeared.

"THE EASTER BUNNY GOT RUN OVER BY A REINDEER, by SIMON CARTER."

Gold was immediately losing his shit over this, just like many others in the audience. "NO! No, no, no! What the fuck?! You can't ju- You didn't- What the fuck?!"

Gold glanced at Spring in disbelief just as the credits at the beginning of the movie began to roll, incredibly distressed at what he just witnessed. "I can't be the only one thinking this! Right?!"

Spring chuckled softly, mostly to himself but loud enough so Gold could hear, not like he bothered to listen as he began ranting to Spring. "I could've gone for Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, or even Grandpa Got Run Over by a Reindeer, or literally ANYthing of that sort, but the EASTER BUNNY?! IN SPRING?! Why was there just a random reindeer flying there? Why was it suddenly pulling Santa's sleigh? IN SPRING?!"

"Hush, the movie proper's starting now." Spring said as he chucked some popcorn in his mouth.

"NO! I WILL NOT SHUT UP UNTIL THE ANSWERS HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO ME!"

"Well, tough shit, you won't get 'em."

"I won't ge- I WON'T GET ANY ANSWERS?! NOTHING AT ALL?! THROUGHOUT THIS WHOLE FILM, THERE WON'T BE ANY ANSWERS?!"

"Nope." Spring popped the 'p' as Gold looked at him, then to the screen, then back at him, and back to the screen, then back to the screen. The credits have passed, and now the girl has called her friends over to discuss the fucking murder of the Easter Bunny by Santa Claus himself.

"Please tell me you're kidding."

"I wish I was."

Gold slunk back in his seat with a sigh, accepting his fate of not ever knowing why Santa was out and about in the Spring, or why Santa ran over the Easter Bunny, or where the fuck Santa's sleigh went before he hit the Easter Bunny. Spring patted Gold's back in reassurance that hey, they're both watching this garbage and they both have to suffer through it.

"This main girl is stupid and I hope she gets run over by a reindeer." Gold muttered, under his breath as the main girl decided to bring the Easter Bunny into her house, while the police were apparently searching for the Easter Bunny. Because news spreads fast in the tiny town of Michigan _(apparently, this movie has a town named Michigan somewhere in the U.S.)_ , and the police are very serious about doing their fucking jobs and hunting down the whereabouts of everyone's favorite egg-hiding bunny instead of hunting down wanted criminals.

"That's a little bit harsh, don't you think, Gold?" Spring absentmindedly grabbed some more popcorn, just as Gold's hand was also in the bowl. Their hands brushed lightly, which sent a couple weird feelings through Spring, but Gold didn't seem to realize what happened, clearly distracted by the main girl's attempts at lying to the police.

"I can't believe that fucking worked. I'm not sure who's dumber - the main girl or the police." Gold was seriously getting worked up about this shitty excuse for an Easter movie, which Spring guessed meant that his plan was working. He didn't really have too much in mind when he took Gold to see "The Easter Bunny Got Run Over by a Reindeer", aside from getting Gold's mind off of other potential worries, and judging by how he yelled at the screen for something stupid that the characters did, it seemed to be working.

There were a couple of families shooting them glares, but Gold didn't seem to notice them, instead joining the rest of the crowd who yelled or jeered at the main characters. And just like that, with the 45 or so minutes left in the movie, Spring sat back and just let Gold's _(not so nice)_ commentary flood his ears like it was music.

**-xXx-**

"I cannot fucking believe that just happened."

"I know."

"I can NOT fucking believe that j-"

"I KNOW, Gold, I get it."

The rest of the movie gone as expected - bad. It was bad. Apparently the main character didn't really have a plan, and in a moment of absolute bullshitery just decided to fucking _become_ the Easter Bunny using some weird-ass ritual that none of them had no way of knowing about, let alone how to do, and then there was this weird-ass scene where she meets the Easter Bunny in some sort of ghost form and all that shit. Also, there was some sort of thing between the Easter Bunny and the main girl? Some sort of unrequited love bullshit that was all last-minute and not very thought through. Either way, both Spring and Gold agreed to never talk about it.

"I'm just..." Gold ran his hand through his hair, before turning to look at Spring, his eyes dead serious. "New rule, you don't get to pick the movies we're watching. Never again."

Spring pouted playfully. "Not even Freddy In Space 5: Twister Location?"

"Especially not that!" Gold had a look of seriousness that only lightly masked that little bit of playfulness that Spring wanted to see. Spring smiled at Gold, as Gold grinned back at him, a genuine one. Which meant he was on the right track.

"You wound me, my darling Gold." Spring chuckled as Gold lightly ribbed him.

"Well, you wound my sanity, so shut your face and don't say nothing."

Spring raised his arms in surrender and the two of them walked back to their place in a comfortable silence, basking in the dim lights of the city as they strolled past some of the only buildings left open.

"Hey." Gold suddenly said, snapping Spring out of his reveries. "Thanks. For the night out, I mean. It... kinda helped a lot."

Spring sorta just gave Gold a little bit of an awkward smile. "It's no biggie. Really. It's the least I could do."

Gold gave off a non-committal hum and looked forward, deep in thought. Spring thought if what he did was enough. He didn't think so, but judging from the looks on Gold's face, that day could be considered a success. Little by little, he was making progress. Bit by bit, he was learning how to not be a huge asshole who fucks shit up. Little by little, he was-

"Shame we never really got to explore the deep-rooted love between Clara and the Easter Bunny."

Spring snorted. "We never got to the reason why the Easter Bunny was killed, and you're thinking about the love story of some random girl and a fucking furry?"

"Hey, I'm a romantic. I like that kinda thing."

"Interspecies relationships?"

"True love that stems from a place of communication, by both verbal and non-verbal means, in which both parties are happy where they stand, and both care deeply about each other." Gold corrected matter-of-factly. "And that too, I guess."

"I bet you ship Freddy and that alien girl."

"Nah, too straight for me." Gold joked.

"Oh, but the Easter Bunny and Clara aren't straight enough for you?"

"They're tolerable enough, unlike Freddy and what's-her-face. I mean, seriously, they should've just scrapped that whole character and had Freddy actually go to space instead of teaching this alien lady how to love on Earth."

Spring and Gold talked deep into the night, about the movies, about love, about life. And for a moment, there was peace. For a moment, there was calm. And just for a moment, Spring felt like he was a part of Gold's world, and he liked it that way.


	5. +xX[5]Xx+

"I can't- I can't do it, dude."

"My guy."

"My body is literally collapsing on itself."

Spring was really regretting letting himself go out of shape.

"Dude, that was like, one pushup." Gold chastised Spring as if he wasn't already doing that to himself.

"It's one pushup too many." Spring huffed as he lied facedown on the floor. He really didn't want to do this whole workout thing, but Gold somehow persuaded him into getting into it with him. _"It'll be great bonding for us!"_ Gold said. Spring thought that this was Gold's way of getting back at him for his assumption. Which, fair, but still.

Gold shook his head and poked Spring's nose. "You're so out of shape. What happened to 'I was a gymnast in highschool'?"

 _"In highschool._ That was ages ago." Spring wheezed out as he (attempted) to do another pushup. "I don't see you breaking a sweat!"

Gold sighed and looked at Spring as if he was a little child who was totally, completely, and obviously wrong. "You wanna see me doing pushups?"

Spring nodded with what little energy he had left. Gold then began doing one pushup every two seconds or something, and then doing a couple of one handed pushups.

"Show-off." Spring scoffed while he drank from his water bottle. Though he wouldn't lie, Gold was surprisingly attractive when he was smirking at Spring while continuing to do his pushups. Spring had been a bit more lenient on who he found attractive ever since his change from being kinda homophobic. He could now say that guys were hella attractive without that internal _"but no homo"_ rant in his head. Although, Spring suspected that there was a bit of homo intended when he looked at Gold, he pushed that thought down deeper into the depths of his brain though.

"How about we do some situps, yeah?" Gold said as he wiped some sweat from his forehead.

"You just want to laugh at me closer."

Gold laughed that nice laugh that he does whenever he's really amused by something. "Well, yeah, but also I feel like you've gotta work on your core since you've been..."

Spring kinda lost Gold at about that point, but he downed the rest of his water bottle and got into situp position while Gold rambled on about what situps improved and all that. Honestly, Spring just wanted it all to be over.

"Okay, ready?" Gold asked as he got in front of Spring's legs. Spring let out a grunt as he began to (attempt to) do one situp.

"As I'll ever be."

_This was going to be a long day._

**-xXx-**

And so, after being laughed at by Gold so much that they were forced to stop, they left the gym and went over to the coffee shop that Gold worked at. Spring never really got to appreciate the place's nice and quaint atmosphere because he was too busy worrying about homelessness. As Spring looked around, he noticed Gold talking with some of his (presumed) coworkers.

"So, Aurey, what're you up to these days?" One of Gold's coworkers, also blond, but way taller and more muscley, greeted as he gathered Gold into a tight hug. Spring pretended to not be looking at how Gold's face turned a shade of crimson.

"Eh, same old, same old. I got a new roommate though, so that's pretty cool." Gold just laughed off the blush on his face as he continued to talk to his coworkers.

Spring pointedly ignored Gold's coworkers and decided to look through the crowd, or the establishment, just anything that didn't have to do with Gold's coworkers (or Gold himself, but he _really_ didn't want to acknowledge that). Spring saw a bunch of people working on their laptops, some of them on their phones, all of them looked like they had their lives more well-put-together than he did.

He heard a bunch of them laughing like they didn't have to worry about getting jobs, because their parents still took care of them, he heard a bunch of them laughing because they already had jobs, and they didn't need their parents to take care of them. All of this just reminded Spring that he really had to look for a job soon, because he can't just mooch off of Gold forever. In fact, he couldn't mooch off Gold for more than a few weeks, because it's going to be next month soon enough, and then he'd actually have to pay for rent this time. Suddenly, he was snapped away from his thoughts as Gold suddenly said his name.

"And this is my roomie, Spring!"

Spring's eyes snapped back to Gold who just looked at him with a little bit of mild amusement, a little bit of regret (for what, Spring didn't know), and just a tiny bit of love. Spring decided that his mind was playing tricks on him and shook his head before raising his hand in some form of weak greeting.

"Hey." Oh god. _Hey?_ Spring could feel himself blushing at that weak introduction, but Gold seemed to laugh so he guessed he was doing right by him. Before Spring could say anything else to regain some form of dignity, the coworker that Gold was talking to earlier went across the bar and engulfed Spring in a big hug that (quite literally) lifted him from the ground. 

Spring let out a yelp. Gold let out a laugh.

"Uh, this is Frasier, he's. Very affectionate, as you can see." Gold shook his head after getting out his giggles. Spring just glared at Gold, who shrugged in response.

"Hey! So you're the fabled Spring, huh?" Frasier said without letting go of Spring. It was kinda nice, he had to admit. Frasier glanced at him with an unreadable look on his face, yet he continued talking in that cheerful way which kinda unsettled Spring. "You've been treating Aureus here real nice, haven't you?"

Spring glanced at Gold, who just nodded his head semi-frantically, giving him the okay hand sign. "Uh, yeah. I just took him to see that new Easter movie... The Easter Bunny Got Run Over by a Reindeer."

Gold let out a snicker which he barely tried to conceal, which caused Frasier to eye him with some sort of look in his eyes, but Frasier put him down regardless and shot him... some sort of grin. Honestly, Spring was just about to tear out the door if Frasier wasn't gripping his shoulders as if he was going to shove him into a locker or something.

"Why don't you guys order something? My treat." Frasier grinned at both of them. Gold simply looked at Spring who tried to shrug, but Frasier's grip on his shoulders was kinda too heavy, so he just nodded.

 _"Okay_ , whaddya want?" Gold asked, stretching out the "ay". He was looking at both Spring and Frasier, exchanging glances with both of them as though they were having some form of conversation. Spring didn't really get anything that Gold was trying to convey, aside from concern, maybe? Either way, Spring realized that it has been way too long since Gold asked his question, but he knew he had to answer anyway.

"Uh, just a coffee. Black. Nothing in it, no cream, no sugar, just black coffee." Spring said a little bit louder than he wanted to. Gold was now looking at him with genuine concern, before Frasier spoke up and told Gold that he just wanted to talk with Spring.

"I don't bite!" Frasier laughed out loud, which alerted Spring to his rather pointy canines. Gold continued to look at Frasier with deep concern etched into his features, raising a single eyebrow.

"I promise, scout's honor!" Frasier lifted one of his arms in some form of scout sign, or scout salute, Spring didn't really know. All he knew was that he could move his left shoulder once more, which he really needed because he couldn't feel his shoulder a few seconds after Frasier got his vice grip on him. Gold didn't look too appeased, but he headed to the counter anyway, shooting glances at them.

Frasier tossed Gold his wallet, which he caught with surprising precision. It was almost like they'd practiced this exact moment for-

"So." Frasier looked back at Spring, and for the first time since they've seen each other, Frasier's smile dropped into a frown. "You're the roommate."

Spring couldn't say anything. The words wouldn't come out of his throat, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get the lump in throat out, so he just nodded.

"Look." Frasier's voice went lower than Spring thought it could go, it sounded almost... feral, in a way. "I know what you did to him. That wasn't cool."

Frasier's arm slowly snaked its way to behind Spring's neck, running his fingers through Spring's hair. _'_ _Am_ _I_ _going to die?'_ Spring thought to himself. "But, it seems like you've made up. That's good."

Spring let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, until Frasier grabbed his hair and pulled him back. "But here's the thing."

Frasier's eyes seemed to glisten, with what Spring could only assume was malice. Hatred. "I don't want you to hurt him. He's been through enough shit in his life for that." He laughed, but there was no joy in it. Only a deep sadness, and somewhere in there, a wave of even deeper anger.

"So here's how it's going to go. _You_ don't end up breaking his heart, and _I_ won't end up breaking your face. Sound good?" 

Spring's eyes widened. Dear god, he knew he was going to die sometime, but death by being mauled by a dude a whole foot taller than him? That was not how he expected he'd die.

"Y-Yeah. I wasn't planning on it." Spring managed to spit out after a few seconds of sputtering random syllables that were supposed to be words. "I, uh. I'm trying. To make it up to him."

Frasier raised an eyebrow, his frown unmoving. Spring gulped as he tried to explain what exactly he was doing. Which was kinda hard, considering that a 7-foot man was holding his shoulder in a death grip. "I'm working things out with him. I'm... I'm doing my best to be less like a total fucking asshole."

Spring sighed as Frasier let his grip loosen. Frasier seemed to ponder his words, before looking at Spring with a gaze that he could only discern as worry. "You sure about that?"

"More than anything."

Frasier simply gazed upon Gold with worry etched into his features. "He's been through a lot, y'know. I just want to protect him, and it hurts me whenever I can't. Whenever I see him get hurt. He was breaking down in the break room, y'know? I mean, we laugh about it now, but there's still that deep concern for him."

Spring didn't know what to say, but he found that he didn't need to say anything. He just slung his arm around Frasier's neck, gently rubbing his shoulder. Frasier seemed to appreciate the gesture, as he just patted Spring's back a few times. 

"Take care of him, alright?" Frasier looked at Spring with a bit of doubt on his face, but the former hatred was now replaced with a deeper, more sincere kindness. Gold tossed back Frasier's wallet to him. Frasier caught it without even looking back at it. It was quite impressive, actually. Gold came back with their coffees, which Frasier accepted graciously, before looking at his watch and saying that his break time's over and that he had to get back to the bar. Gold nodded and looked at Spring with a glance that said "what did he do".

"We just talked for a while. No big deal." Spring sipped his coffee inconspicuously (or at least, he hoped he did). Gold just nodded again.

"Yeah, sorry about that. He gets... overprotective, I guess. Of all of us, actually."

Spring wanted to ask if by "all of us" Gold meant the whole coffee shop, but he didn't. He supposed _that_ was just how Frasier was. Protective. Spring couldn't blame him. He didn't know these people's lives, he only saw how happy they looked _right now_. Spring didn't know whether they went home to abusive people, or if they went home to a sickening quiet. 

Spring just nodded. The two of them just sat down, sipping their coffee in comfortable silence, just content to be in each other's presence. Spring placed his hand on top of Gold's. Gold didn't recoil. And just like that, Spring felt that whatever this was, whatever they were, it was enough. 

It would work out.


	6. +xX[6]Xx+

Spring was alone.

Alone, because Gold had to work, and he had to find work somewhere. He'd been staring at the newspaper for like, three hours at that point, and his brain just wouldn't comprehend what was written on the classified ads.

 _'Baker. Nope, can't bake. Chef. Can't cook either. Librarian. Too_ _boring_ _. Baker- wait is that the_ _same_ _ad_ _?'_ Spring groaned as he set down the newspaper, pinching the bridge of his nose. _'I need a_ _cup_ _of roasted coffee.'_

Spring wouldn't deny it if anyone said that he came to the coffee shop to see Gold. He wouldn't accept it either, but hey, it wasn't like anyone talked to him. He pushed the thought of Marion lovingly _(or at least, at the time he_ _thought_ _it was lovingly, now_ _he's_ _not_ _too sure)_ chastising him, saying that she talks to him, her friends talk to him, to the back of his mind. He really didn't want to think about her, yet she plagued his thoughts recently. Marion was a doctor. She had a well-paying job, a loving family, she wasn't a disgrace to everyone who knew her. She had her life together.

He wasn't in her life anymore. She's happier without him.

"Ow."

Spring had been snapped out of his thoughts by him walking directly into the door of the coffee shop _(which he still didn't bother remembering the name of)_ without opening it. As he touched his face trying to ensure that he didn't have a concussion, he noticed Gold laughing, his head buried in his arms, while Frasier simply shook his head and walked over to the door.

"Did you forget how doors worked?" Frasier held his arm out as he opened the door, pointing towards the inside of the coffee shop.

"What is a door." Spring nonchalantly said as he walked towards the register.

"Hey there, sweetheart." Gold said as he tried to stifle his laughter. Spring decided that his blush was from walking into the door, and not because Gold called him 'sweetheart'. Gold seemed to be too busy getting over his laughter to notice, but Frasier just gave him the "I'm watching you" gesture.

"So." Gold couldn't stop giggling. Spring would've found this situation as hilarious as Gold did if he didn't have thoughts of Marion threatening to overwhelm him.

"Wait, hold on!" Gold continued laughing for a few seconds, wedging his head in his arms again to maybe muffle his laughter. Spring just started at Gold with an unimpressed look. Once Gold finally got himself together _(which took a whole two minutes of him laughing, pausing, then laughing again)_ , he finally asked what Spring would like to order.

"Just three black coffees, with varying levels of cream and sugar in them, as long as one of them has none of either in them."

Gold just stared at Spring incredulously, laughed, and then shook his head, getting over to the counter to do some barista things. Spring thought that Gold's way of mixing coffee and stuff was really impressive. This store didn't use coffee machines, so everything was done by hand and boy, was that a spectacle to watch.

Gold was stirring a cup of coffee while chatting excitedly with his coworkers, passing the drink to one of his other coworkers before grabbing a cup and adding coffee, sugar, and cream in it effortlessly, in what looked to be exact doses.

Spring wouldn't lie and say that he wasn't mesmerized by the way Gold moved, the way his legs danced behind the cramped space behind the counter, the way his arms raised up and down as he continued talking with his fellow baristas, just everything about him was breathtaking.

Frasier sidled up to the table that Spring picked and shot him a respectful nod. "He's a beauty, isn't he?"

"Yeah." Spring felt... he felt right, saying that. He felt like he wanted to always make Gold smile like he does whenever he's making coffee like it's some form of dance with multiple people. "He sure is."

Spring chanced taking his eyes away from Gold, slightly fearing that if he looked away Gold would stop being happy. He still heard his laughter echoing through the quaint building, so he kept his eyes focused in Frasier, who was also looking at Gold, till he noticed Spring's gaze on him.

"You see that too, right?" Frasier asked him. "You see how happy he is whenever he's working?"

Spring dipped his head down so he'd avoid having to look at Gold again. "Yeah. I want to make him as happy as he is right now, but like. All the time." Spring chuckled mostly to himself.

Frasier nodded in understanding, and stood up from the table. "Well, see ya around, Spring. I've gotta head back to work or the boss will have my head." Frasier laughed that laugh he did when Spring first saw him with Gold. Light, carefree. 

Genuinely happy. 

Spring wondered if he'd ever get to a point where he could laugh like that. He wasn't too sure if he'd ever fully move on from Marion, but he felt that he could at least be free from her right here, right now, with Gold's laughter echoing through the whole shop, and through his head.

"Here's your coffee, man." Gold walked over to his table, carrying a tray with his three coffees, before placing each coffee on the table. Spring noticed a similarity on the three cups. Instead of the name of the person who ordered and the drink that they ordered, written in black marker was "CREAM: ??? SUGAR: ???", which made Spring let out a little chortle.

"You're an asshole." Spring said as he grabbed the first cup and put it to his mouth.

"But you love me."

Spring nearly choked on his coffee. He didn't really know if it was because he drank the coffee with the most ungodly amount of cream and sugar in it or if it was because of what Gold said. Gold thought that it was the former.

"Is that Sugar-Cream Heaven slash Hell?"

"I hate this. So much." Spring groaned but he drank the coffee anyway. He paid for it, it'd be a shame if it were to go to waste. No matter how disgustingly sweet it was.

"To be fair, you didn't really word your order to have a max amount of sugar and cream." Gold devilishly smirked at him.

"And you really like seeing me in pain, don't you?"

"Yes."

Spring and Gold talked for a bit, at least up until Gold said that he was way past his break time and scampered over to the bar. The other workers seemed to joke with Gold about the boss giving him 5,000 more work hours or something, he wasn't really paying too much attention to the conversation anymore.

Spring's eyes were right back at where they were three hours ago: in front of a newspaper, threatening to close shut and fall asleep. He's lucky that he was drinking absolutely disgusting coffee at the moment, that was the only thing keeping him awake at this point. Spring brought the newspaper down roughly, groaning right before drinking the sugary drink. 

He glanced at Gold and his coworkers, now chatting in their indoor voices. They were still having lots of fun though, judging by how Gold and a few others were chanting "coffee king!" again and again, while Frasier was chugging cup after cup of coffee. He looked away from them and clocked the notice board once again. 

Same old, same old. Still looked like a 12-year-old could've made it _(or you know, just some old dude who just now learned how to use MS Word and was just trying out all of the Word Art garbage)_. It no longer had the "Looking for a Roommate!" sign, which Spring took and probably left in one of his pants which got sent to the wash by then. He wasn't quite sure what he was looking for, really. He noticed some more of the promos, featuring the actual name of the coffee shop, which Spring finally got _(and remembered!)_.

_"Sweet Dreams Coffee."_

Well, that was kinda cliche. One of the taglines for their coffee is "Sweet dreams are made of these:" and a bunch of ingredients right below the text. It kinda made Spring laugh, just how nice and kinda sweet the things are. It made him wonder if the owner of this place was actually just some little old lady, just generally nice and all that.

Spring was snapped from his little reverie by a little thing that he should've known about ever since he walked into this building. Out there in the center of the notice board was a little page, with a design not unlike the rest of the stuff on the notice board, with the words "Accepting Applications".

_Holy shit._

"Hoooly shit." Spring muttered under his breath. This could be it. This could be his way out of the hellhole of a predicament that he got himself into. Feeling his heartrate quicken from what he assumed was a sense of eagerness, he quickly browsed through the available positions. 

_'Store Manager. HAHAHAHA. No. Administrative Assistant. What even was that? Pass. Barista. That... that could work, actually.'_

He decided that he might have to ask Gold to train him on that front. Or maybe Frasier. He wasn't quite sure if he wanted Gold to know what he was planning to do. Either way, Spring jotted down the required information on his phone, and took a picture of the whole poster anyway. He might need it.

"Holy shit." He muttered to himself, taking in the fact that he could actually pull this off. Holy shit, indeed.

**-xXx-**

"So, if I were to apply for the barista position at your workplace, how would you feel?"

Gold stared at him for a bit, laughed, but then stopped once he found out that Spring wasn't joking. "Oh shit, you're serious?"

Spring nodded swiftly. Gold was laughing once again. "You sure you want to work at Sweet Dreams?"

"Yeah? I mean, it's a place called _'Sweet Dreams',_ how bad can it be?"

"Very bad." Gold looked extremely serious when he said that, arms crossed, pausing from whatever he was doing on his laptop, now facing Spring. "Why don't you just try being a barista somewhere else, like Starbucks?"

"I don't see why I should have to take two 30 minute bus rides to get to a Starbucks when I can just take a 15-minute bus ride to Sweet Dreams." Spring left out the part that he wanted to see Gold more often, since he was sorta starting to like the guy _(way more than he_ _should_ _, he realized)._ Gold simply looked at him with both sympathy and, for a lack of a better term, second-hand regret.

"Well, if you're absolutely sure about that." Gold sighed and stood up, putting his laptop down to the side. "Come on, I'll show you the basics."

Spring followed Gold towards the kitchen, where he was taught the right amount of coffee grounds to put in, the way that some customers had different interpretations of "a little bit of sugar", all that stuff.

"Now." Gold didn't really look at Spring but he knew he was paying attention when Spring immediately stopped what he was doing. "So at Sweet Dreams, we all kinda have this little... what's the word for it... flair, I guess."

Spring wanted to ask what Gold meant by that, but apparently, he didn't need to.

"We have this way of brewing coffee that makes us feel... livelier, more happy, all that." Gold explained before sipping the coffee that he made for himself. "Now, obviously, you can't do that yet, since you're new and you'll probably struggle to deal with all our _dramatique_ movements and stuff, but you don't really have to do much of anything."

Spring nodded his head, and continued brewing the cup of coffee that Gold had asked him to do. Gold looked at him with concern etched on his face once more. "Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this?"

"Yeah."

Gold simply nodded, drumming his fingers against the counter. "So, my boss is kind of..."

"Eccentric?"

"A hard-ass."

 _Oh._ Spring couldn't really say that he expected Gold to say that, but he motioned for Gold to continue anyway.

"They're pretty tough, especially on the new hires, but uh. They're generally nice when you meet them not at work."

Spring was kinda confused about all the "they"s Gold kept mentioning, though he supposed that this boss could be nonbinary, as he'd learned on that one night when he scoured the internet on LGBT+ stuff.

"What're they like at work?"

Gold seemed happy _(or was he relieved?)_ that Spring caught on to the whole they/them thing, and he stopped drumming his fingers, but only for a moment. "We don't call them Nightmare without reason."

Nightmare? Oh god. Spring felt like he might've been a little too cocky that he didn't even ask what the boss was like. Still, how bad could they be? It wasn't like Spring hadn't had his hard share of hard-ass bosses. He could handle it!

Everything was going to be just fine.


	7. +xX[7]Xx+

And so, the day of the interview.

Spring would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous as shit, but he did so anyway. Gold just looked at him as if he was saying that he ate a child, but didn't say much other than a few reminders of what to do and not to do when talking to Nightmare _(apparently, rule number one is DO NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE call them Nightmare before you get the job)_ , a few encouragements, and when they arrived at the door to the boss's office, Gold gave Spring a reassuring pat on the back, squeezing his shoulder as if to say that everything would be fine, then walked off.

Spring took a deep breath as Gold walked away and stepped inside of the office.

The office was quite plain looking, everything organized, a few potted plants stood in the corners of the room, looking fresh and sort of vibrant. A large person (not as large as Frasier is, but still considerably larger than him) sat on the desk, seemingly looking through the resume that he submitted, as well as the other required documents. Nightshade Maredon _(also known as Nightmare to their coworkers)_ glanced at Spring, and whatever greeting he was about to spew out died in his throat as Nightshade's gaze turned from bored and disinterested to intense and calculating in a fraction of a second.

"So. Spring Trapp." Nightshade paused for a moment, but only for a moment. "You want to be a barista."

"Uh, yeah I-"

"Do you have any former experience as a barista?"

"Well, no bu-"

"Have you ever worked in retail?"

"Uh, no. But, uh..." Spring noticed that Nightshade was quiet all of a sudden, seemingly lost in thought. Spring didn't want to know whether he wanted to interrupt whatever they were doing by piping in with whatever stuff he had to say, so he just stayed quiet. Nightshade then looked up at him, their gaze cold but slightly sympathetic.

"I'm sorry, Spring. But you do not really meet my standards for being a barista." Spring lowered his head so he didn't have to face Nightshade anymore. _'Welp, there goes my shot at paying rent this month.'_ Nightshade sighed and just kept leafing through the stack of papers that they had on their desk. "You don't really have too much to offer in terms of customer service, and also I just don't think that you can make coffee quickly and efficiently."

Well, that part was true. Throughout all of the training that Spring went through, he only learned how to make things quick but mediocre, or really good but also really slow. Nightshade turned their gaze back to Spring, a question seemingly about to come out of their lips.

"I'm really sorry, Spring. There are other positions that you could apply for, but if you want to be a barista you've got a lot more to learn." Nightshade simply nodded at Spring and began putting the papers into a drawer below their desk.

Spring was really down, but hey, it wouldn't hurt to try, right? "What other positions could I apply for?"

Nightshade stopped suddenly before nodding and pulling out some of the papers that they just put back into their desk. "Well, there's being a stock person, though I don't think you're the type to do any sort of physical labor." Nightshade took one glance at Spring's rather unenthusiastic face and nodded to themselves. After quite a while of careful consideration, Nightshade spoke up again.

"You could be in charge of our advertising."

Spring looked up to face Nightshade. "Advertising?"

They simply nodded at him and began looking through what Spring presumed was his resume. "It says here that you are a Bachelor of Science in IT, specializing in Multimedia and Web Development. Our ads are not entirely that great, considering that I made them, I'm not entirely tech-savvy, I have no idea how to make 'aesthetically pleasing' designs, and I have not gotten any better at making them. Improving on that could be extremely beneficial to the company." Nightshade then looked directly at Spring, taking in the sheer awe on his face. To be honest, Spring was just astounded that he was _(sort of)_ right. "I also saw here that you're quite good at photography. It could be better for the website as well."

Spring didn't think that he'd be able to use his major and his love of photography anywhere. Marion always told him that there was no way anyone would hire someone like him, someone with no experience and that photography was just a nice hobby, but no one with a decent phone would hire someone who did photography _(he always thought that she was just joking since she'd always laugh afterward, but her words hurt him all the same)._ Spring grinned and nodded, mostly to himself but also to Nightshade.

"Is that a yes?" Nightshade asked him, raising one eyebrow, an expectant look on their face. Spring nodded enthusiastically, while Nightshade gave him a relaxed smile. 

"Welcome to the family, Mr. Trapp."

**-xXx-**

"Well? How was it?" Gold nervously fiddled with the straps on his apron.

"It was good."

Gold looked up so quickly, Spring would've thought that he'd broken his neck or something. "It was?"

"Yeah, I didn't get to be a barista, but at least I can get into advertising." Spring said nonchalantly as he walked up to the counter, fishing for his wallet. Gold still seemed in disbelief.

"And Nightmare was..?"

"Not as bad as you guys implied. They were actually quite sympathetic with me, and they were more on the cold and calculating side than the fiery and ragey side that you guys seem to associate with them." Spring said before stating his order to the barista.

Gold sputtered out some incoherent words while Spring awaited his drink, tapping along to the supposed rhythm of the baristas behind the counter. "Seriously? You're not fucking with me?"

"Did you hear any yelling?"

That just happened to shut Gold up for just a moment, and Spring kind of chuckled at Gold's whole demeanor. Anyway, Gold perked up again and began to talk to Spring while he was still on his break. "Oh yeah, congrats on the job, by the way! Advertising, yeah?"

Spring was surprised, he would've thought that Gold would've forgotten about that by now. "Yep. Gotta make the ads for this place, as well as fix up the website."

Gold groaned into his hands. "Yes! Please do! I can't even look at it without getting a migraine, god."

Spring gave out a nice hum, getting into a booth. Gold followed him into the booth, sitting just beside him. Spring decided that he liked how close they were, and he decided that he liked getting physical with Gold. He put his arm around Gold's neck, just to test the waters. Gold didn't seem to mind, and in fact, he pressed himself closer to Spring's form.

Spring smiled the whole day after that. 

**-xXx-**

Spring would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous.

Of course he was nervous, he hadn't taken it out in ages. Well, he'd taken it out, and took a couple of photos, but mostly those were just to keep him calm. This was going to be for his job, which could determine how long he'd get to stay in this town as a not-homeless person. Spring pushed that thought aside as he went to his unpacked luggage. He never really bothered to unpack it all, considering that he didn't really feel the need to uncover his old memories. Besides, he just needed to keep it somewhere safe.

With a deep sigh, Spring took out his old camera from deep within his luggage. It always held a nice spot in his heart, and he knew that he still yearned to use it. To think that he'd almost given up on his passion completely. Spring chuckled somberly at the memory, shaking his head. He shifted the camera in his hands, as if trying to refamiliarize himself with it. With a shaky breath, he stood up smiling as he turned on the camera, smiling as the ambient light in his room bathed his surroundings in a warm golden color.

"Alright. Let's get this started."

**-xXx-**

"Hey! Uh, do you mind if I took some pictures of you guys? It's for the Sweet Dreams website."

The three young adults looked at each other, then back at Spring, before all saying some version of 'sure'. Spring simply asked them to do what they were doing before he came, and while they did just that, Spring didn't really feel it. The way they moved and talked seemed a bit too forced. Spring even saw one of them _(not so subtly)_ turn their cup so that it was showing the company's name instead of their own name. Which, _fair_ , but still.

Spring sighed and thanked them for their time, and just slumped back into a booth. He'd been always used to taking candid photos of people _(his family, mostly)_ but he felt the need to ask these people if they wanted to be featured in advertising. This wasn't just some random photos he'd show to maybe two or three of his closest friends - this was going to be broadcast to the whole world. _Well,_ not necessarily _broadcast,_ more like put their image out to the world of whoever even checks advertisements. Spring sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Rough day?" Gold asked while putting Spring's favorite drink down on the table in front of him.

"Kinda." Spring took a small sip of his coffee, taking a look through all of the photos he'd taken. "Most of these people know that they're being photographed-"

"Fair, consent is sexy."

"But that just makes them look stiffer. More forced. Like they're trying to pose for a camera, but they're 5-year-olds who just like the attention from the camera guy."

Gold snorted at that, leaning on the back of Spring's chair, looking through the photos as well. "Well, you could just take a photo and then tell them about it later."

"Yeah, but like. That kinda goes against the whole 'consent is sexy' thing we're going for, you know?"

Gold shook his head. "Well, you could take a bunch of photos of the staff. I don't think any of us would really mind."

"Maybe." Spring said as he continued looking through the photos he took. There were a few decent shots, but aside from that, nothing he'd want to use. After all, this was his first job in the city, and he wanted to make a good impression on his boss. He sighed and began sipping his coffee. "So, how was your day?"

Gold chuckled a bit. "Not as bad as yours, apparently."

Spring shoved Gold off of the back of his chair. "I don't think it's your break yet, honey. Nightshade's gonna give you 500 more hours."

"It's still weird when you call them that." Gold laughed softly as he patted Spring's arm as he walked back to behind the counter. Spring watched him talk with his coworkers a bit, and then went back to looking through the like, 25-30 photos that he took. 

Most of them were just repeats of other photos, so Spring thought that he may as well delete the worst ones and just stick to the ones that were good enough. As he began deleting some of them, Nightshade came out of their office and sat directly opposite Spring.

"Hello, Spring. How was your first photoshoot?" They asked, seemingly genuinely interested in what he did.

"Well, it... wasn't _so_ bad."Spring showed them the few photos that he viewed as good enough. Nightshade seemed to take them in carefully, eyeing each photo with the same intense and calculating look that they gave him a few days ago.

"I have the sense that you don't view these photos as good enough." Nightshade pointed out, turning to look at Spring with a look that said they're trying to understand why that was the case.

"I dunno. It just feels like they look too much like they're acting." Spring took a sip of his coffee. Gold always knew how to make it the way Spring liked it. It gave him some sort of weird feelings, but generally, good feelings. Spring shook his head, much preferring to focus on the matter at hand. "I know that the average person probably might not see it, but you can kinda tell that their smiles are forced, they show the product a bit too much, they look at the camera. It's just... not my best work."

Nightshade assented nonchalantly, seemingly deep in thought."Have you ever thought of taking the photos before alerting the people in them? My father always used to do that when he was a photographer."

Spring nodded unsurely. "I just feel like they have to know first."

"Well, these'll have to do for now, I suppose. You can get more photos whenever the time is right." Nightshade nodded and patted Spring on the back as they stood up. Spring sighed in his seat, now knowing that he'd have to edit these photos into decent-looking ads and stuff to put into the website, just to entice customers who were viewing their website. But today, Spring felt really good. Today, he felt like he had the reigns on his life.

Today, he felt like he was on top of the world.


	8. +xX[8]Xx+

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"My thoughts are worth more than a penny, and I'm almost done, shut up." 

Gold hummed nonchalantly, watching Spring work on the _(hopefully)_ last ad for today. Spring did as best as he could with the ads, which was already pretty good _(if both Gold and Nightshade's approval were anything to go by)_ , but he still felt like he could do better. Spring sighed contently as the file exported itself to the PDF format. "Welp, that _should_ be it. I just gotta send this over to Nightshade and then finally go to sleep."

Gold let out another noise to show that he was still listening. Spring looked over to Gold's tired form, his head nestled in between his arms, which were placed on the back of his couch. Spring could tell that Gold tried to stay awake just long enough so that he could be the last one to head to bed. Spring sent the file to Nightshade, asking them to send over any final revisions that he could make before they got to printing them, and shut off his laptop.

"I'm done, Gold."

"Mhm. Now get to bed."

Spring stood up, waiting for Gold to stand up as well, but the other man did not. Spring thought about bringing Gold to his bed, just as Gold did to him, and he would've done it, if he didn't know how heavy Gold was. Spring just shook his head and went to Gold's room to get him a blanket and a pillow. He sat on Gold's bed, taking in the familiar view that was now associated with a bad memory. He sighed to himself as he dug his face into Gold's comforter, which still sort of smelled like Gold. He took in a good whiff of the scent, before standing up and going back to where Gold lay.

Gold was in the same position as when Spring left, head in his arms, sort of sitting down and sort of laying down his arms on the back of the couch. Spring smiled at the sight of Gold. He couldn't help but do that, it seemed. Every time he saw Gold, he somehow always smiled. Whether it's because Gold told him some stupid joke or because he just looked so damn cute whenever he was sleepy, Spring found that wherever Gold was, he'd be happy.

He put the pillow down on one end of the couch, and as he pulled Gold down from his _(probably uncomfy)_ position, Spring felt someone wrap their arms around him. He looked down to where Gold's face was buried in his chest, breathing softly as he began mumbling something a bit too low for Spring to hear. "Stay."

Spring looked at Gold with surprise as the other man continued mumbling. "Please. Just stay here."

Spring could not say that he expected that to happen, but he smiled regardless. "Of course." Spring brought Gold down with him, lying on the couch together, snuggling under Gold's blanket. Gold mumbled something else as he moved his body as close as he could to Spring's. And Spring himself thought that whatever he'd been doing to fix his and Gold's relationship to one another, it must've worked. 

The last thought he had before he fell asleep with Gold in his arms was how lucky he was.

**-xXx-**

"Isn't it a bit too early for that?"

"What are you, my mother?" 

Gold shot Spring a half-smile, watching as the other man chugged half a bottle of cheap beer before returning to coding what Gold presumed was the website. Spring said earlier that the old website was too outdated and that he'd probably have to just make a new website from scratch, and that's exactly what he did. Spring didn't think that he'd have too much use of his old notebook with all his notes from college, but he was really glad that he decided to bring it with him to Hurricane and not throw it out.

"Well, no." Gold started, putting his arm around Spring. "But I really don't want to deal with a drunk you this early in the morning."

Spring was about to object, but then he realized that he couldn't say shit because the _last_ time he was drunk didn't work out too well in either of their favors, really, so he just sighed and put the can into Gold's open hand and continued working on the website.

"Is it already better?" Gold asked as soon as he put the can away from Spring.

"Yeah, kinda. I've already added some buttons that lead to somewhere else and also just a little gallery of sorts." Spring showed off the gallery first, with photos of some coffee, some of the workers, and some of the customers. Seeing the website for the first time, Gold seemed to be actually impressed. Then Spring clicked one of the buttons, which lead to a page where the only thing there was a crude little description of what was supposed to be on that page.

"Obviously, it isn't done yet."

"Really?" Gold started to laugh. "I would've loved to visit a page that literally just says _'I dunno what to put here, I'll ask Gold in the morning, god I have a fucking headache and I can't afford to think of anything else'_. Real swanky, man." Gold did the okay hand sign, which caused Spring to sort of blush as he pushed Gold away.

"Yeah, yeah. Fuck off, go to hell, etcetera." Spring rolled his eyes and went back to coding some more parts of the website. Gold stayed there, arm still around Spring, just watching him type some more lines of code which Spring presumed Gold didn't understand, before getting up and stretching.

"I'm heading to work in a few minutes. You want anything for when I get back?"

"In like, eight hours?" Spring asked seemingly in disbelief. Gold just smiled and shrugged at him. Spring sighed. "If you could get me a hot cup of black coffee that'd be great."

"A cup of roasted coffee, comin' right up!"

Spring couldn't help but smile at Gold's whole thing. Just the way he spoke, the way he acted, the way he almost always found a way to make Spring's day just that little bit brighter. Spring swore that Gold was giving him the same feelings Marion gave him back when they were dating, but kind of different, in a way. While Marion left him wanting more, Gold made him feel content, but he wouldn't mind if they gave each other that little bit more.

Marion was the moon, while Gold was the sun. 

Marion was so beautiful, not just to look at, but in her actions and her words as well. She always preferred to stay amongst the others but her beauty dwarfed all those around her, just as the moon looks so much bigger compared to the stars around it. However, just like the moon, Marion was uncertain. Uncertain in the fact that she never seemed to be upset about anything, but Spring would just hear around the grapevine that she didn't like this, didn't want him to do that. 

Marion also held a lot of secrets. Just as the moon's dark side, Marion had a side to her that Spring barely even scratched the surface of. He always thought that Marion was just a nice, loving, sometimes shy, but overall sweet woman, but the more he thought back, he remembered... snippets. Snippets in which Marion wasn't who he thought she was. Like whenever he'd bring up his love for photography, how she'd laugh in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it condescending tone, always telling him just how much she disapproved of his lifestyle.

Gold, on the other hand, was bright, brash, and overall more fun. He always found a way to light up the room, always showing that there was a brighter side to every situation. Like the sun, Gold's enthusiasm and passion for doing what he loved was so warm and welcoming, yet also so fiery that in some cases, Spring had to look away. Not because it would physically hurt him, but rather he was afraid that if he stared too long, he might not ever stop.

Gold was also incredibly hot.

Spring chuckled to himself at that thought, not too bothered by it anymore. He was surprisingly doing so well with this whole 'being gay' thing. Or was he bi? Or maybe pan? He didn't know. All he knew was that Gold was there, and that was enough for him. He was so sure that he'd hate being queer, being like Gold, being _different_ , but that didn't happen. He actually liked being open-minded _(who woulda thunk?)_ , and that thought alone somehow surprised him.

As Spring went back to work on the website, Gold came out of his room, dressed in his uniform. He grabbed his keys, checked himself in the mirror, and headed out the door. "Welp, I'm going. See you in a bit."

And then, Spring decided to open his big, dumb mouth.

"Bye, love you."

Gold paused in the doorway, looking back at Spring. Spring didn't even realize what he said until a few seconds later, at which point he blushed furiously and tried to salvage the situation, much to Gold's _(who was also blushing!)_ delight.

"Love ya too, babe." Gold shot Spring a cheeky grin then headed out, laughing good-naturedly as he did.

After letting it all sink in, Spring realized that yes, he did in fact just say that. Yes, Gold did in fact say that he loved him back _(Gold called him babe!)_. And yes, he was in fact completely and utterly in love with one Aureus "Gold" Fazbach.

_'Fucking hell.'_ Spring thought to himself. Well, this arrangement just got more interesting.


	9. +xX[9]Xx+

"Have you ever dated Gol- a guy, Frasier?"

Based on the look on Frasier's face, this was not a question that he was asked often. Or at least, not a question he'd expected to hear from a mister Spring Trapp. Frasier studied Spring's anxious form, the way he tapped his fingers against one another, the way he awkwardly stood in front of him, just an overall not good look for Spring. Frasier raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I've dated Gold before." Frasier said casually, giving Spring some sort of small smile that said basically said _"what's going on here?"_. Spring coughed as he tried to think of something to say in response.

It had only been a few days when Spring found out that he was attracted to Gold in that way, and now, his brain was tormenting him with thoughts of Gold, Gold, and only Gold. He actually forgot about Marion until the latter half of yesterday, and just remembering her made him think that being attracted to Gold was sort of like him rebounding. He didn't want his first love in his new life to be a rebound, so he tried to stay as far away from the subject of liking Gold as possible, yet each and every time Gold even looked at him his heart exploded.

"Trapp? You still there?"

"Y-Yeah! Uh, would you know what he'd like, if I were to uh, _hypothetically,_ ask him out on a date?"

Frasier raised both of his eyebrows, seemingly amused by the whole situation. He laughed loudly, in the typical Frasier fashion before his face turned dark. "Are you sure about that? This whole dating Gold thing?"

Spring gulped. "Y-Yeah. I'm sure." 

Frasier seemed like he wanted to add more to his whole spiel, until Spring interrupted him with a fervent plea, his voice turning to a barely audible whisper by the end of it. "I just don't want to mess things up with him, you know? I know I love him. I really do. But how do I do this? How do I not break his heart?"

Spring was visibly shaking, his hands covering his face. He didn't want to cry, not here. Not now. Frasier just grabbed a hold of Spring and engulfed him in a warm hug, whispering soothing words just to get the other man to calm down. "Okay. I get it. You really love him."

Spring just snuffled into Frasier's shoulder.

Frasier patted Spring on the back a few times, then taking Spring's shoulders, holding the other man at arm's length directly in front of him. "Just keep doing what you're doing. Go on movie dates, go on walks through the town, have dinner at times. Just be yourself. There's nothing that people want more than someone who is genuine. And if Gold doesn't like that, then it just wasn't meant to be."

"You sound like you come from a place of experience." Spring said lightly, hoping to dispel his almost breakdown in front of Frasier. Frasier simply chuckled.

"Yeah. When Gold and I were dating, we sort of had this... spark, you know? But then as time passed, we slowly found out that. That we just were meant to be good friends. There wasn't anything wrong with me, nor him. We were both compatible, we both liked dudes, we both liked the same things, it's just that... our relationship didn't seem to be as romantic as we would've liked."

Spring nodded solemnly. Frasier shook his head at something, probably a memory between him and Gold. Then, Frasier looked at Spring, eye to eye, with a caring look in his eyes and a nice smile plastered on his face. "I know that you guys can work it out. But only time will tell if you guys will stay together."

Spring gazed at Frasier gratefully, and then launched himself at the taller man, giving him a nice big hug. Frasier laughed and ruffled Spring's hair, smiling as they shared a rather nice moment with one another. Spring had never thought that he'd ever be this close to Frasier, what with all the protectiveness that the other man has over all his friends, but it seemed like for just a moment, Frasier opened up his walls and let Spring in, letting him be a part of his group of friends that he swore to protect. Spring liked that.

"Well, I've gotta go get some sort of dinner planned now, I guess." Spring laughed quietly, as did Frasier. "See you around, then?"

Frasier grinned that huge grin of his and gave Spring a salute. "See ya around, buddy."

For the first time in quite a while, Spring felt like he actually belonged.

**-xXx-**

For the first time in months, Spring was called by an unknown number.

He was busy preparing his dinner for Gold, who would come back in about four hours from now, when suddenly he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He never gave out his number _(at least, he thought he didn't)_ , and the only other people he thought would call him were Gold, Frasier, and Nightshade, whose numbers he had already saved in his phone.

At first, he just let it ring, setting up the small table just as he remembered it. But then it rang again. And again. And again. All from the same number. Figuring that whoever it was wouldn't stop calling until the reached him, Spring answered the call.

"Heya." Spring said with the phone tucked in between his ear and his shoulder.

"William?"

At first, Spring barely even recalled the name. And then, he barely recognized the voice. He immediately dropped the tablecloth, dropping his phone in the process. Spring cursed himself as he picked up his phone from the ground, hearing the melodious giggles on the other end.

"Marion." Spring grumbled in a cold tone. "I'd say that it was good to hear from you, but I'm not a liar."

Marion simply laughed at that. "Still not over that, I see."

"How could I? You left me hanging there at the altar."

"If I recall correctly, _you_ were the one who left _me_ at the altar." Marion's voice chided. Spring thought that he'd been through with Marion's condescending voice, but apparently, her words still cut him deep.

"How did you get my number, and why are you calling me?"

"You never changed it, my dear."

Ah. Right. He just blocked her number, and with a doctor's salary, she could clearly afford another SIM card, or hell, even a brand new phone if she wanted to. "Right. And why are you calling me again? Did you just come to make fun of me for crying when you said no?"

"Oh, no no no." Marion tsked at him as if he was a child who was clearly, utterly, and obviously wrong. "I came to ask when you're coming back from your little escapade."

Spring snorted at that. "Coming back?"

"Well, yes. Clearly you're running out of money if you couldn't afford a new phone, and you're probably living in a... 'budget apartment', or whatever the lower class call it."

Spring was getting rather annoyed at his ex-fiancee's attitude right now. Spring brought out the cheeriest voice he could muster and put on a fake smile on his face, even though he knew that Marion couldn't see him right now. "Well, _my dear,_ I'm not coming back."

"Oh, but honey, what about your hometown?"

"My hometown sucks. They've treated me like shit ever since you jilted me."

Marion gasped at that. "William, language!"

"Oh, so that's what you're worried about, huh? My fuckin' potty mouth? Not the fact that people have literally thrown insults and actual rocks at me whenever I pass by them? Real swell. Feelin' the love in here."

"Well, I'm sure that-"

"Y'know what, Marion?" Spring really felt the need to not be outspoken by his _oh so amazing_ ex-fiancee. He really felt like he had the chance to speak his mind for once, and not be insulted, or threatened, or anything else that happened in his old town. "I've been dealing with your shitty attitude for several years now. And for some damn reason, I never thought anything of it, aside from just being little jokes on your part. But now? I'm here somewhere else, and I'm _way_ happier than I was when I was with you."

"Surely, you don't mean tha-"

"I've gotten a job here! With my actual interests! I got an advertising gig for some coffee shop and now some people are looking to hire me for my expertise!" Okay, that last part was a lie, but it felt good anyway. "I've got a cool ass housemate, who doesn't treat me like I'm less than him! And I'm just gonna say this once."

Spring didn't bother to listen to whatever Marion was going to say next. He didn't need to. For the first time in weeks, he'd felt like he'd broken free from Marion's chains. For the first time in quite a while, he felt like he was unstoppable. For the first time ever since he met Marion, he wasn't going to bow down to her will.

"Don't call me. Don't text me. Don't contact me. Ever."

"You'll be back." Marion huffed out, clearly getting annoyed that things didn't go her way.

"Doubt it. Goodbye, Marion." And then, Spring hung up. After blocking her new number and putting his phone on silent, Spring went back to work on his surprise for Gold, humming a little tune from his favorite band, without the fear of being shut down.

For the first time in quite some time, Spring felt genuinely happy.

**-xXx-**

When Gold came back from work, he expected to see Spring on the couch, watching TV or working on his laptop. What he didn't expect, was for Spring to be sitting at their small dining area, in his tux, and the whole thing looking just like their first 'date', it was even candlelit and all that. Spring just smiled at Gold, raising a glass of cheap wine. "'Sup loser. Wear your finest suit, we're goin' on a date."

Gold just laughed and shook his head, muttering something along the lines of "alright, alright, I can't believe you used my own words against me" and then walked over to his room, presumably changing into his suit. Spring really couldn't think of anything else to do, and since his first experience with a nice candlelit dinner was more-or-less a success _(the next night didn't count!)_ , he figured that he'd give it another go. Besides, he thought that Gold looked hella hot whenever he wore his _'finest suit'_ , but he'd tell Gold that if the night goes in his favor.

_'Okay.'_ Spring thought to himself. _'The rules. Rule number one, do NOT get too drunk.'_ Spring looked at his wine glass in silent contemplation, as if staring into it would somehow make him not want to drink it. Spring sighed when his master plan didn't work, but put on a smile as soon as he heard Gold's door click open. He turned around to see Gold, back in his dark blue button-up and gold vest, giving him some sort of shy smile. Spring nodded in the direction of Gold's seat, taking a small sip from his wine glass. He sure as hell hoped that he'd stick to rule number one, else the night was to end very poorly.

Gold sat on his chair, the very same chair that Gold sat on during their first 'date'. Spring decided to start off by saying something nice about Gold. "Swanky attire. It suits you."

Gold chuckled slightly. "Thanks. You're not looking too bad yourself."

They smiled at one another, before taking bites out of their food. Spring was supposed to go to the store to buy some ingredients for something edible, but considering that he couldn't cook if his life depended on it, he just decided to get some takeout and call it a day. Gold didn't seem to notice, or if he did, he didn't mention it.

"So, are we at the part where we tell each other about ourselves?" Spring asked while sloshing his wine around in the glass. He figured that he had to take charge this time, considering that Gold seemed either too flustered, too uncomfortable, or too lost in his own head to do it himself. _'Rule number two, if he doesn't want to talk, don't push it.'_

"Uh, actually, how about you start?"

Spring nodded as he took another sip of his wine. "Well, as you already know, I really love photography. I was always into it ever since I was a kid and I found my dad snapping photos of us. Originally, that was what I wanted to pursue in college, but then I found that Web Design was more of my thing." 

Spring babbled on and on about himself, not leaving any minor details unsaid, as he figured that if he wanted Gold to reopen himself up to Spring, he'd have to be more open about himself as well. All the while, Gold just nodded and engaged Spring in a _(mostly)_ one-man conversation. Gold laughed at the funny parts, smiled at the endearing parts, and gave out some comments on whatever the hell Spring was talking about this time.

"...and _that_ is how I got arrested in my second year of college." Spring wrapped up his story with a clap of his hands. Gold was still laughing about how stupid Spring was in his younger years. "I can't believe you set the _entire_ school on fire."

"I did _NOT_ set the _entire_ school on fire, I set a _majority_ of it on fire." Spring corrected, as if it was any better. Gold didn't seem like he was going to stop laughing at Spring's horrible, no good, very bad day in which some vital parts of his hometown got destroyed, and Spring was okay with that. 

Spring was okay with hearing Gold laugh just like he did when he was working.

Spring sighed as Gold's laughter faded and they looked deep into each others' eyes. For a moment, Spring saw the spark in Gold's eyes come back. The same spark that he had when they first decided to _really_ get to know each other. A spark that told Spring that Gold was genuinely happy to have Spring there by his side. Sighing once more, Spring thought that there was no time like the present to ask the question that's been running through his mind the entire time. _'Rule number three. Consent is sexy.'_

"May I kiss you?"

Gold stared at him for a moment, making Spring think that Gold didn't want to, and so he simply smiled. "It's alright if you don't want to. Consent is sexy, after a-"

And then Gold reached over the table, grabbing Spring by his shoulders, and then kissed him.

And Spring kissed back.

Spring never thought that he'd actually get this far, but for once, he was happy with how his life turned out. He was happy with just kissing Gold, running his hands through the shorter man's hair as they kissed each other 'til they ran out of breath. They separated to catch some air, their lust thick in the air, and smiled at each other.

Gold smoothed his hair back, putting his arm on the table. "So. That was..."

"Hot."

Gold laughed at Spring and tossed a fry at him. Spring simply caught it in his mouth. "I was going to say 'amazing', but sure. Hot works too."

"So, does this mean that we..?" Spring asked quietly. Now was the moment of truth. Spring's heart began to beat faster and faster with each second that passed by. Gold, however, remained calm and had a smile plastered on his face.

"Spring." Gold got up and walked over to Spring's side at the table, getting down on one knee, and offering Spring a fry. Spring laughed as Gold unsurprisingly made him smile yet again. "Will you do me the honor, of eating this fry, and being my boyfriend?"

Spring just looked at Gold, staring in disbelief. He took the fry, ate it, and gave Gold a quick kiss on the lips. "Hell yeah."


	10. +xX[10]Xx+

When he and Gold began dating, Spring thought that their whole dynamic would change, just like how it happened with Marion. But it didn't. Sure, he'd occasionally get some kisses and some of the more affectionate stuff _(like hugging!)_ , but Gold never really changed his demeanor, and neither did Spring. And yet... somehow Spring felt that he and Gold had gotten closer. Closer than he was with anyone before. That thought scared him. If he were to lose Gold...

"Hey." 

Spring snapped out of the thoughts that plagued his mind at the moment and turned to look at Gold. Gold was standing directly behind him in the ticket line for the new 'The Easter Bunny Got Run Over by a Reindeer' movie, looking at him with a little bit of concern on his smiling face.

Gold didn't say anything else, he just grabbed Spring's hand and gave it a tight squeeze. Spring squeezed it right back. Spring's thoughts of losing Gold and what that would mean for the two of them came to a halt, his heart felt full, threatening to blow up with all sorts of warm feelings. 

And then he calmed down, relishing in Gold's touch.

 _'_ _Oh. There's no need to worry.'_ Spring thought. _'Gold is right here, right now. And that would be enough.'_ As they got their tickets, they went over to their seats, and Spring only noticed that they'd kept their hands together the whole time until Gold's hand retracted from his own when he took a seat.

Spring wouldn't want to admit that he actually craved Gold's touch, but _damn_ , he _really_ craved Gold's touch. Preferably all over his body.

Spring felt a blush creep up to his face, smiling as the pre-movie ads had by now been long over as the actual movie began to play and Gold began his astounding commentary. By the end of it, Spring was clutching his stomach because he laughed so hard from Gold's whole rant about how stupid the whole movie was and the look on his face when Spring suggested that they watch the next movie next Saturday.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Gold rubbed his face in annoyance. "There's more?"

Spring just nodded and listened as Gold went on another rant, this time about how whoever making these films just milking the people who wanted to watch this ironically, how financially stupid their decision was to make another movie, all that stuff. Spring just listened, because he loved hearing Gold speak so passionately about things. He loved hearing Gold speak _to him_ about things that bothered him. He loved hearing Gold speak to him because he knew that he could trust Spring.

Spring looked at Gold, who was waving his hands around in the air, motioning for this and that. With all of the shit that he went through, that _they_ went through, Spring found that he liked the little moments like this one the most. Just talking about whatever's on their minds, not knowing or even caring if the other was listening, but just having them there to be by your side. 

It felt nice.

Walking back home in relative silence _(Gold had already stopped ranting by the time they were nearing the bus stop)_ , the pair just reveled in each other's company, leaning into each other for comfort, joy, or just to sate their desires to cuddle with someone, they both smiled. 

Everything was going to be okay.

**-xXx-**

"Okay, what the everloving fuck are you saying?"

Spring was pacing back and forth, tugging at the collar of his shirt. Currently, he and Frasier were chilling at the front of Sweet Dreams, both as customers. Spring had been extremely nervous about talking to anyone about this, but he figured that if it was too soon, Frasier would be the one to know the answer to that.

Spring just groaned and picked up his coffee. Instead of his actual name, Gold had decided to be either one hell of a romantic or a little fucking dick by writing cute pick up lines on the cup. It seemed that even now, three years into their relationship, Spring couldn't stop his face from turning so damn red that Gold would liken him to a traffic light. _'Fine one moment, then bright red for several seconds to come!'_ Gold told him once. It didn't really help when Gold absolutely thrived out of making Spring blush, so he made sure to do it as much as he possibly could.

 _"Okay."_ Spring sighed as he ran his hands through his hair. "I'm going to say it once more, but slower this time."

"Thank fuck." Frasier teased Spring as he took a sip from his drink. "I was beginning to think that you were just gonna keep goin' a mile a minute."

Spring strengthened his resolve, bringing out the small, black box. He didn't even need to say anything, as Frasier dropped his drink and just stared at the small open box in his hands. Or rather, the little object that poked out of it. Spring looked at Frasier, whose face was unreadable. He coughed and put the box away. "Too soon, huh?"

At that point, Frasier guffawed and as soon as he stood up, pulled Spring into a bear hug. "Dude, Aurey is going to freak the fuck out!"

"That's a bad thing, right?!"

"No!" Frasier once again held Spring out in front of him, smiling as if he was the luckiest guy in the world. "The good kind of freaking out, like when you're 13 and your favorite band shows up at your birthday party!"

Spring laughed and shook his head. "Is this another one of your past experiences?"

"Actually, yeah!" Frasier assented, sitting down once more and cheerfully motioning for Spring to sit down. Spring ran his hands through his hair as he sat down, knowing that this was probably it. The real moment of truth for whether or not he and Gold were ready to take on the world as a team. As partners.

As lovers.

Frasier gently placed his hand on top of Spring's. Spring barely even realized that he was tapping his nails on the table until Frasier stopped him. The taller man simply smiled at him. "It's going to be fine, Trapp."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because I know Gold, and I know you. Also, he talks my ear off about you whenever he's feeling distracted." Frasier chuckled, a tinge of... some sort of emotion in his eyes. Maybe regret, maybe jealousy, who knew. Before Spring could comment on it, the small flicker of whatever that was faded from Frasier's face as he put on the brightest smile he could muster. "Alright. Go get 'im, tiger."

Frasier winked and stood up, walking back into the shop, and right behind him was Gold, who walked tiredly towards the table Spring was at. The coffee shop wasn't too busy, since there was still room inside, plus all of the outdoor seating except for the small little table that Spring got, so Spring figured that Gold was tired from dealing with a bunch of kids who acted like they owned the place. They'd talked about a certain group in particular, who all claimed that their parents were officials in the city council or something, yet when asked for any evidence they just angrily called the police to arrest whoever was in charge of the counter. The police usually only came to escort the rowdy teens back to the precinct, in which they got their parents to bail them out because _'they were just doing what they thought was right'!_

"Hey." Gold sat on the chair, looking burnt out. "Little Felix and his _wonderful_ posse came around and yelled at us because the way we put the sprinkles on his frappe didn't look the same as the one in the picture."

Spring snickered, taking Gold's hand and kissing it. The small gesture made Gold smile, but it didn't take away his exhaustion. "Hey, sorry about today, but I don't really feel like..."

"No worries." Spring reassured him, rubbing his hands in circles on the shorter man's back. "We can just stay home and cuddle, if you want?"

Gold appreciatively kissed Spring's lips, the passion behind it, although dimmed, not lost. "Thank you."

Spring felt around in his pockets for the little black box. He wondered if he should just ask Gold right away, or to wait until he was more awake, more alert. He didn't want to spring it on him _(no pun intended)_ , and he figured that Gold could use the rest. His thoughts were interrupted when Gold took notice of his hands.

"Is there something you wanted to give me?" Gold looked at him tiredly, with a seemingly knowing gaze trained directly on Spring's eyes.

Spring stood up, his hands still in his pockets. Gold remained seated, looking at Spring as if he wanted to say something, but he didn't. Spring took a deep breath and beamed at Gold. _'Welp, no time like the present.'_

"Gold, we've been together for about three years now."

"Astute observation."

"I just... I just wanted to let you know that you mean so much to me. You are my whole world. You make me smile whenever I feel so down, and you somehow manage to keep me sane throughout all of this craziness that life chucks at us."

Gold was about to say something, until Spring knelt down on one knee and brought out the little black box with the engagement ring inside.

"Gold, will you be mine, for forever and a day?"

Gold's exhaustion seemed to instantly vanish, replaced by pure, unadulterated joy. He stood up, kissed Spring with so much more passion, so much desire, that Spring nearly fell over. Instead of Gold saying some sort of witty remark, he looked at the ring and put it on his finger. 

"Hell yeah." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of our story, folks!! Hope you enjoyed reading this, because it sure was fun making it!! Until next time, guys, gals, and nonbinary pals~


End file.
